The present invention relates generally to mechanical hardware used under environmentally stressful conditions and, more specifically to swivels which are environmentally impervious.
While there are a number of swivels well known in the art such as U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,400,291, by D'Aleo; 2,466,243, by Johnson; and 3,504,937 to Panovic, none of these are constructed to resist the corrosive environmental condition such as those occurring in for a swivel operating in a salt water environment, a high dust situation or submersed in mud and sand, as is the instant invention.
Swivel joints require that two masses rotate axially with respect to one another with the least possible energy loss due to friction. A number of techniques may be applied to reduce the coefficient of friction between the rotating masses along their rotating surfaces. Wet and dry lubricants may be used or the rotating surfaces themselves may be fabricated from plastics having low coefficients of friction, such as, polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) which, is manufactured by Dupont, Inc. under the trademark TEFLON.RTM..
However, regardless of the nature of the lubricant or the sliding surfaces, contaminants containing particulates may enter the swivel assembly and increase friction, requiring excess swiveling force and reducing the life span of the swivel itself.